WASHINGTON — We live in a bubble, in the Western world and especially in the United States. Two vast oceans separate us from much of the world. Our wealth and politics and privilege handle much of the rest. We can choose to isolate, to ignore what’s going on in the rest of the world. But the world has a habit of slapping us out of our reverie, of making us sit up and pay attention.
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Wladimir Klitschko came to D.C. to disrupt.
“You’re not the only one,” Klitschko said Tuesday. “Even in Germany, they’re in a bubble. Ukraine, from Germany, Poland is in between. It’s not that far. It’s so close, and (not) so far.”
Klitschko, now 47, has gray in his hair and weariness in his bones. He is seven years removed now from his last stint as boxing’s heavyweight champion of the world, a reign he held, during non-consecutive timelines, for 12 years, longer than any heavyweight champ in history. He and his brother, Vitali, have been sounding the alarm for much of the last decade about the dangers faced by his native country, both before and after it was invaded in 2022 by Vladimir Putin’s Russian military.
Wladimir Klitschko isn’t just talking. He joined the front lines in Ukraine in 2022 when the war began. Vitali, who also was heavyweight champion during different periods between 1999 and 2013, has been mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city, since 2014. Like most Ukrainians in the fight, Wladimir is grateful for the assistance provided by the West, and the U.S., since the start of the war.
But Ukraine, Klitschko says, needs more to survive.
“I believe people will not understand how dangerous it is if they don’t have practical examples of losing someone close to them,” he said Tuesday, on Capitol Hill, before a reception honoring him sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association.
“Their family, friends, relatives, neighbors,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s all in the press, newspaper, radio, TV. It’s there, but it’s not the first, not the last war on this planet. News are always present with the bad news, so to speak. Something bad happens. You don’t have good news. News are bad. If you have someone associated, someone from your neighborhood, someone that you’re a fan of, and I’m speaking of my brother Vitali and myself, I can reach the minds of the politicians, as well as the public, that are supporting politics in some direction. And politicians are very dependent on the ratings — their own ratings, their party’s ratings, and there’s connectivity, connection and reaction as well.”
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Since the war began, nearly four million people have been displaced from their homes, with 6.5 million people crossing into neighboring countries. Poland, Ukraine’s closest neighbor to the west, has taken in more than one million refugees alone.
Wladimir Klitschko says he and his brother have a “certain frustration” that their messages about the coming Russian threat were not heeded.
“Sanctions didn’t work, or they were not good enough,” he said. “Business with Russia was continued. Russia had enough financial assets to flex their military muscles and build out their military. … We were not heard. Unfortunately, now we’re saying we won’t be the last country, if we fail. After Ukraine, with Putin’s Russia, we know and understand that if we fail, the Baltic countries will be next. Now with a closer border to NATO countries, with Sweden and Finland, so they will definitely capture those countries — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Poland, and other countries, Romania, Moldova and so on – that were under Russian power. And we’re still saying it. And unfortunately, we are not receiving enough support.
“We’re doing the job. We don’t need soldiers from (the United States) or NATO countries. We’re going to do it on our own. Just give us the tools. We need the tools. We don’t need 20 tanks and 20 planes — we need a thousand tanks. Because the front line is over 2,000 kilometers. So lots of Russian forces are collected on the front lines. So we need to fight them and outsmart them, because we don’t have as many soldiers as Russia. And we can, only, with better weapons and the amount of weapons.”
In the ring, the Klitschkos could handle things themselves. There’s a reason Wladimir, who went 64-5 in his pro career, was nicknamed “Dr. Steelhammer.” (Both brothers have doctorates in sports science.) Seven years after his last fight, he is still shredded.
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But sport is not war.
“I’m trying to reach the minds of people, and their souls and their hearts,” Klitschko said. “I’m not just on the West side, but also on the front side, as it has been from the beginning of the war two years ago, more than two years ago, when the front line of the war was in the city of Kyiv, and the city was almost circled and almost taken by the Russian forces. And we cannot forget about the beginning of the war, and the massacre of the civilians, in Bucha . … that’s personal experiences, from being on the front line, understanding that 80, 90 percent of the fighters — that’s men and women — are volunteers who committed to defend the country. … Those people on the front lines are definitely handicapped mentally and will remain for the rest of their life. It is important for them to reload, to see their families, their kids and recharge their energy. They are exhausted, mentally and physically.”
Initially, Vitali Klitschko was supposed to join his brother here. But he couldn’t get out of Kyiv. So Wladimir made the rounds alone, meeting with Congressional leaders on both sides, State Department officials and others, in an attempt to persuade Republicans in the House to lift their opposition to military aid packages to Ukraine. A Senate bill that approved $60 billion in funding for Ukraine last month has stalled in the House, though the Biden Administration said Tuesday it would send an additional $300 million in aid to Ukraine.
Again, Wladimir was grateful. But he likened the $300 million to a Band-Aid on a very deep wound. Tuesday afternoon, Klitschko was honored by CTA at its Innovation House.
“What does it mean, ‘innovation?,'” Klitschko asked the audience. “That means to participate in evolution — to make life better, to explore the world, technology — to make living better, simpler, more efficient. To preserve our history, preserve our Mother Nature and, essentially, improve our living.”
In the first months of the war, much of the world, in deed and on social media, rose up in support of Ukraine, celebrating the actions of its citizens, who not only held off the feared Russian military but talked about possibly retaking the former Republic of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, though most countries still recognize it as part of Ukraine.
But as the war has settled into stalemate, the world’s attention to it has waned — as another war, in Israel and Gaza, has snatched many people’s attention. Yet Ukraine’s needs remain. NATO has expanded to now include Sweden and Finland, but on the ground, Ukraine is starting to give back some of its territory. Independent observers warn that Ukraine needs more firepower. Article 5 of the NATO Treaty makes clear that an attack on any NATO country must be viewed as an attack on all NATO countries, requiring NATO’s rapid response. The only time Article 5 has been invoked since NATO was formed following World War II was after 9/11.
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“There is no doubt — none whatsoever — that if Ukraine falls, this war will be a war that America no longer has the luxury of ignoring,” said Nolan Peterson, a former Air Force pilot now working as a journalist and non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
“We’re not going to be able to lose this war and just go on,” Peterson said. “This war will drag us into another global conflagration.”
Klitschko says “90 percent” of the proposed $60 billion that would be earmarked for Ukraine would actually remain in the United States, as the increased manufacturing of arms, along with expanding U.S. capabilities in smart tech and intelligence gathering, create jobs here. But, to be sure: The weapons America would create and ship to Ukraine are front of mind. A strong Ukraine makes for a stronger Europe, he argues; a stronger Europe makes for a stronger United States.
“And if the U.S. thinks that the war is somewhere (else), and we’re safe and fine here, you’ve got to understand that the evil is going to connect with each other, as they do now, to support Russia,” he says. “Some other countries delivering kamikaze drones and weapons for them. We live on one planet, and we’ve got to do the trade and so on. So in a more complicated way, long term, you cannot stand away and look away. It’s going to get into this country as well. The good and the evil, always, was here on this planet. You need to choose sides. If you look away, you’re automatically supporting the evil. If you’re actively participating, you’re choosing the side of good in this case.”
It didn’t take Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko much time at all to decide to be uncomfortable in their retirement, to turn away from the cushy post-fight lives each could have had, whether here or in Germany, where they are beloved, with their wealth and their intelligence and their privilege. They could have been connected as deeply as they wanted to the fight game, whether as promoters or broadcasters. Instead, they walked away. And walked to their homeland. Their determination to defend it is a matter of life and death, and if their lives are needed to save Ukraine, they are as diligently prepared for that as they were for each of their fights.
“In the war, I wish it could be cleared differently, with negotiations,” Wladmir Klitschko says, finally. “But there’s only one negotiation — get the (bleep) out of Ukraine.”
(Photo of Wladimir Klitschko: Johannes Simon / Getty Images)
